Discriminations with minorities common phenomenon in Pakistan, Iran

By GHAZAL OMID

Jihad means unresisting against beyond yourself. Jihad actually is a protective way for the minority community or even the majority from being discriminated or demolished. It protects a particular community from genocide and demolition.

 

Jihad means resistance, fight to keep yourself and your faith alive. However, it is prerequisite to differentiate a person with real spirit of Jihad from a murderer or a psychopath.

During World War II, Jewish people were sent to concentration camps or burnt alive. If there was Jihad in Judaism, they could have used that to protect and safeguard their race and faith. The atrocities and abuses perpetuated against Jews were inhumane and cruel. Jews with the passage of time accomplished new elevations by rebuffing violence and cruelty and presented determination and compassion.

After the holocaust, violence would have been a legal method for them to retaliate, but they relatively displayed wisdom and created a new perception of compassion and concern for humanity. In the present global scenario, activities by the Charlie Hebdo magazine have no moral or legal authority but killing their staffers was against the real essence and meaning of Jihad.

People who practice that are murderers, socio-psychopaths and killers. Freedom of speech doesn't mean freedom to mock, freedom to degrade and that kind of freedom is a very dangerous game to play with. However, applying for a migration to do terrorist activities on the pretext of Jihad is highly condemnable and a person with that thought is a psychopath and would be called a serial killer in countries like the United States.

The discriminations with minorities have become a common phenomenon in countries like Pakistan and Iran. Ironically, most Muslim nations are silent over these atrocities due to political and economic reasons and the sprit of real Jihad gets blurred due to their state centred policies. Being strong nations in Muslim community and countries would not poke their allies for the citizens of other nations.

Why would Saudi Arabia, which is supposedly the key holder of Kaba and Prophet's Mosque (PBUH), jeopardise its strategic partnership with these states for something which is economically not suitable for them. UAE, the second most powerful country in the middle east along with Saudi Arabia, can do a lot of things but would remain silent for the betterment of their relations with these states.

The atrocities and human rights abuses perpetuated in Pakistan with the minorities, particularly with the Shia community, are rising with each passing day. If Pakistan continues with the curtailment of civil and political rights of minorities, two things would happen; either it would be a complete chaos and killing brother to brother on the name of Jihad would be norm or there is possibility of segregation of minority. That unfortunately would happen in the future and a lot of people would not feel safe in the future anymore in Pakistan.

This has happened to a lot of minorities like Kurdish, Balochis and Arabs in southern Iran. These regimes actually want to control the minorities and want to keep pressure but there is only so much pressure these minorities could take. At any given moment, these minorities would either run to the street and it will turn into a genocide or they have to be segregated at one area that would be cut out of that country.

Ninety per cent Iranian people are Shia and they treat Sunnis exactly the same way Shias are treated in other Sunni states. It is a fact that Sunnis in Iran are under the constant threat of state-sanctioned repression of their faith, societal discrimination and economic deprivation. Despite constitutional assurance, discriminations against Iranian Sunnis continue. If the Iranian attitude towards its minorities persisted, it could have negative repercussions for the political stability of Iran.

Iranian regime now wants that sanctions are lifted and Iran has to give something for that. The achievements of Barack Obama in US-Iran deal need to be re-established with America again being governed by Democrats. People like John Kerry once again would be at the helm of affairs but it seems that the Joe Biden administration would not repeat the same process. He would definitely try to achieve more than what Obama did. Moreover, European authorities would not also agree the same after what Iran has done to European-Iranian communities.

The Saudi Arabia is a Salafist ideology country with Wahabis being exactly the same. Everybody else accept that a Wahhabi is a Kafir (non-believer) for them. Worth for the people from other faiths is not present there. They would not jeopardise their relations, especially economic, for a bunch of Kafirs.

(Ghazal Omid is an Iranian-Canadian author. She wrote an autobiographical work entitled 'Living in Hell: A True Odyssey of a Woman's Struggle in Islamic Iran Against Personal and Political Forces'. She is known in the US as an advocate for human rights and women's rights and is also a Shia legal scholar)

Source: IANS